Green tea fights obesity (but 10 cups a day is needed)

Green tea reduces obesity and some inflammatory biomarkers associated with poor health. It is clear from a study from the University of Ohio (USA) where mice fed a diet containing 2 percent green tea extract achieved better results in these sections.

The benefits seem to be due to better bowel health, which includes more beneficial intestinal bacteria and less permeability in the intestinal wall, a condition commonly known as leaking intestines. Green tea, in short, can stimulate the growth of good intestinal bacteria. This leads to a number of benefits that reduce the risk of obesity.

Green tea has a long history in Asian countries and is increasingly being adopted in the West, in part because of its potential health benefits. Catechins, a series of anti-inflammatory polyphenols found in green tea, have been linked to anti-cancer activity and a lower risk of heart and liver disease.

Based on this background, the researchers devised an experiment that examined the effects of green tea on male mice fed a normal diet and a high-fat diet designed to cause obesity. For eight weeks, half of the animals took the high-fat diet and the other half ate regular food. In both groups, half eaten green tea extract mixed with their food.

They then measured body weight and fat tissue, insulin resistance and other factors that included intestinal permeability, gastrointestinal composition, or inflammation of the intestine and fat tissue. Mice are fed a high-fat diet plus green tea purchased at a weight of less than 20 percent, and have lower insulin resistance than those who received the same diet without tea.

These mice also had less inflammation of the fat tissue and intestines. In addition, green tea seems to protect against the movement of endotoxin, a toxic bacterial component, outside its organs into the bloodstream. In addition, they found evidence that the backpacks of these mice were stronger, less "permeable".

The researchers also found that green tea seemed to contribute to a healthy microbial composition in mice fed a high-fat diet. Mice fed the regular diet plus green tea also had benefits including: lower weight loss and lower levels of endotoxins and leaking intestinal markers.

The IDEAL: 10 boxes a day

The consumption of green tea in the experiment will be equivalent to about 10 cups of green tea during the day for a person. "It may seem like a lot of tea, but it's not very unusual in some parts of the world," explains Richard Red Bruno, lead author of the study, which was published in the Journal of Biotechnology.

Bruno is now working on human research to investigate the effects of green tea on the leaking stomach in people with metabolic syndrome, a condition that causes people to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

For now, it is early to evaluate the findings on animals to people. In case the benefits are true in humans, green tea supplements will not be a substitute for food. Consuming a little more during the day with other foods, like mice did in this study, could be better, "he says.